Florida Schools See 'Disturbing' Decline in Enrollment, Teachers Seek Help

By Dana Cruz First Posted: Sep 25, 2020 02:02 AM EDT

Florida teachers and school leaders seek financial protection from the state Department of Education (DOE) after seeing a "disturbing" decline in their enrollment rate this year.

Tampa-Area Chidren Return To Classrooms On First Day Of School

(Photo : by Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
Students return to school at Seminole Heights Elementary School after the Florida Department of Education mandated that all schools must have in-class learning during the week on August 31, 2020 in Tampa, Florida.

Officials believe this decline in enrollment threatens to sink school budgets this year.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) joined a panel of school officers on Friday. They asked the state to fund all Florida schools at current levels throughout the school year.

FEA also pleaded the state to continue with the funding despite the decline in class enrollment, the Politico reported.

Union leaders also described the shocking decline of educators in the state's schools as "chaos." All of the state's classrooms had to quit in-person teaching early into the pandemic.

Now, teachers are quitting classrooms to avoid teaching in-person and online students at the same time.

Educators Call for Complete Resources

Dan Smith, president of the Seminole Education Association, had some doubts about the state's commitment to reopening schools.

He told reporters that the state also had to "commit the resources to make it happen." He said the reopening should not just be made "superficial."

For this fall, school districts and charter schools reported hundreds of fewer students compared to last year. The trend is hitting lower grades, especially kindergarteners, the most.

For example, in Pinellas County, the number of enrolled students went down by 1,320 compared to the same time last year. About 700 of these students, or more than half of the group, belongs to incoming kindergarten students.

Given there were over a thousand students' loss in the county, this could trigger a decrease of over 10.3 million in funding for the county's schools. Bay County school officials are also looking into the decline in enrollment.

Even online schooling in this county has been affected. There were fewer students who are logging in for remote learning, the Panama City News Herald reported. There are also similar scenarios playing out all over Florida, said the Florida Finance Council.

Are Florida Schools in a Crisis?

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said Florida was a "model" for the nation in reopening schools, as FOX 35 Orlando stated in a report. But not everyone agrees.

Some of the reasons enrollment went down amid the pandemic could be some students started homeschooling. Officials also believe some students moved to private schools or delayed the start of school due to COVID-19.

Gretchen Saunders, the finance council's president, said the school district is "aggressively" trying to have these students back. But they do not know when or if they will go back to public schools at all.

Saunders expressed her concerns in a letter to the DOE on Tuesday. The lowering of enrollment could have set local budgets in disarray given a normal school year.

In July, Corcoran said that schools are guaranteed to get the full amount of state funding regardless of enrollment.

Taryn Fenske, a spokesperson of the DOE, wrote in a statement that Corcoran and Governor Ron DeSantis would do what's best for the students, parents, and teachers.

She did not address the drop in enrollment for this school year. She also didn't comment on whether the financial relief will be extended.